My desert island satellite radio channels

From the Crutchfield Archives

I listen to music all day long at work, everything from Buck Owens to Rage Against the Machine. The idea of satellite radio appealed to me from the start, and the music I've heard on XM and SIRIUS has been light years better than I'd ever hoped for. A friend asked me the other day to name my favorite radio channels, and I didn't even have to think for a second to come up with my answer.

Underground Garage plays music with the garage band spirit from the 1950s through to the current day. By "garage band spirit," I mean music that still has the rough edges attached to it, music that reminds you of the excitement you felt when you first listened to rock'n'roll, no matter how old you are now. An hour-long set might include The Ramones, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Chiffons, Social Distortion, Dion and the Belmonts, The Strokes, The Hollies, Grateful Dead, Wilco, Them, The Pretenders, Link Wray, and Aimee Mann. You get the idea.

I don't want this to sound like an advertisement, but I can't help it. I frequently listen to these channels all day long, and I'm amazed every hour by something I haven't heard in years and something I've never heard before.

Crutchfield Writer Biography

Charlie Pastorfield

Charlie Pastorfield writes about car audio for Crutchfield. Raised in Connecticut and the U.S. Virgin Islands, he graduated from the University of Virginia, but was having way too much fun to leave Charlottesville. After a long, beautiful career touring the East Coast from Boston to Atlanta as a professional guitarist (Skip Castro Band, The Believers), he married Emilie, had two daughters (Morgan and Emma), and got his first full-time job at Crutchfield. Still an extremely active musician, he's now a member of The Gladstones, a 4-piece group that plays just about anything, and Alligator, an 8-piece band that plays late 60's Grateful Dead.